Frank Chadwick

Last updated
Frank Chadwick
Frank Chadwick 2021.jpg
Chadwick in 2021
Born
United States
Occupation(s) Game designer, author

Frank Chadwick is an American game designer [1] and New York Times best selling author. [2] He has designed hundreds of games, his most notable being the role-playing games En Garde! , Space: 1889 and Twilight 2000 , and the wargame series Europa and The Third World War, as well as creating Traveller with Marc Miller. He has won multiple awards for his work.

Contents

Beginnings

Chadwick formed the ISU Game Club at Illinois State University with Rich Banner. The club focused on wargaming, but the students also began designing games as a fun activity and were able to convince the university to fund a new program called SIMRAD ("SIMulation Research And Design"), with the intent of aiding instructors to produce specifications for simulation games. [3] : 53  They used their club funding to design war games. They also formed a small educational games organization in response to a project by the university to bring new ideas into the system. After failing to win this project, Chadwick and Banner, along with newcomers Marc Miller and Loren Wiseman, continued to work together, forming Game Designers' Workshop. [4] [3] : 53  When ISU stopped funding SIMRAD after 18 months, Miller, Chadwick, and Banner founded Game Designers' Workshop on June 22, 1973 as a commercial outlet for their creations, initially headquartering the company in Chadwick's and Miller's apartment. [3] : 53 

Game Designers' Workshop

There is little doubt that, even in the rather busy pantheon of (wargame) industry heroes, Frank Chadwick is a Zeus amongst the Ajaxes. He is one of—if not THE—finest game designer working today. Since GDW's emergence in the mid-1970s, Chadwick has been GDW's main designer, producing a body of work remarkable for its breadth and width. ... ever resourceful, Frank C covered his simulated butt with the out-of-sight success of his Desert Shield Fact Book. Its reported, six-figure sales will probably bank-roll the company for the next decade. And, as if that weren't enough, he has steered GDW (admittedly with the astute help of others) from a small-town, Third World company to its status as one of the major simulation and RPG publishers in the market today. Frank is also president of the industry professional association, the Game Manufacturers Association, so GDW's tentacles reach out to almost every cave in which hobbyists can hide in. If dice produced olive oil, there is no doubt that Frank Chadwick would be wargaming's Godfather.

—Richard Berg, 13 time Charles S. Roberts Award winner, in Berg's Review of Games, issue #3, Spring 1992

Game Designers' Workshop existed from 1973 until 1996. [2] There, he designed several well-known and award-winning games, including En Garde! (first swashbuckling role-playing games) in 1975, [3] : 53  [5] Space: 1889 in 1989 [3] : 59  [6] (which was set in a steampunk milieu before the term was coined), [7] and Twilight 2000 in 1984. [1] [3] : 57  Chadwick and Miller designed Traveller . [3] : 54  Game Designers' Workshop also published the Gulf War Fact Book, a book he wrote on the military capabilities of the United States and Iraq at the time of the Gulf War. The book was on The New York Times bestselling list, and led to appearances on various news programs by Chadwick. [8] After the closure of Game Designers' Workshop, Chadwick got the rights to Space: 1889. [3] : 63 

After Game Designers' Workshop

Chadwick has written blogs on history and military issues at Greathistory.com. [9]

Awards and recognition

Chadwick at the 2005 Origins game convention Frank Chadwick.jpg
Chadwick at the 2005 Origins game convention

Chadwick won numerous awards, including induction into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame and Origins Hall of Fame in 1984. [10] He won a Charles S. Roberts Award in 1980, 1981 and 1989, was nominated for an Origins Award in 2009. [11]

Works

Below are some of Chadwick's most notable works.

Design credits

Fiction

Space: 1889 & Beyond series

  • 2012: A Prince of Mars , Untreed Reads Publishing, B007CQDAPM, novella and book five of the Space: 1889 & Beyond series.
  • 2012: Dark Side of Luna , Untreed Reads Publishing, B007WUK8MQ, novel and book six of the Space: 1889 & Beyond series, co-written with JT Wilson.
  • 2012: Conspiracy of Silence , Untreed Reads Publishing, ASIN B008XQT0TU, novel and book seven of the Space: 1889 & Beyond series, co-written with Andy Frankham-Allen.
  • 2014: The Forever Engine , Baen Books, ISBN   978-1-62579-221-1, time travel novel set in a divergent Space: 1889 universe (serves as something of a prequel to Space: 1889 & Beyond, and shares some of the same characters as Conspiracy of Silence).

Cottohazz series

  1. (2013) How Dark the World Becomes , Baen Books, ISBN   978-1-4516-3870-7, science fiction crime novel
  2. (2015) Come the Revolution , Baen Books, ISBN   978-1476780955, science fiction sequel to How Dark the World Becomes
  3. (2017) Chain of Command . Baen Books, ISBN   9781481482974, science fiction, set in the same universe as How Dark the World Becomes and Come the Revolution, but with new characters.
  4. (2020) Ship of Destiny , Baen Books, ISBN   978-1982124434, sequel to Chain of Command

Related Research Articles

Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller designed Traveller with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions were published for GURPS, d20, and other role-playing game systems. From its origin and in the currently published systems, the game relied upon six-sided dice for random elements. Traveller has been featured in a few novels and at least two video games.

<i>Space: 1889</i> Steampunk tabletop role-playing game

Space: 1889 is a tabletop role-playing game of Victorian-era space-faring, created by Frank Chadwick and originally published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) from 1989 to 1990. It was the first roleplaying game to feature space colonization using steam technology in the style of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle in what would later be called steampunk. The setting of Space: 1889 has not only produced roleplaying games, but boardgames, books, miniatures and a computer game.

Europa is a series of board wargames planned to cover combat over the entire European Theater of World War II at a scale that represents units from divisions down to battalions and game turns that represent two weeks of time. The series was launched in 1973, and is still in production as of 2013, with over a dozen titles published and several more still in production or planning. Most of the titles qualify as "monster games", a subgenre of wargames featuring extensive orders of battle, a complex ruleset and usually a large game-map area with a detailed representation of the terrain they cover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Designers' Workshop</span> Wargame and roleplaying game publisher

Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers.

<i>Sky Galleons of Mars</i>

Sky Galleons of Mars is a board wargame designed by Frank Chadwick, Marc W. Miller and Loren Wiseman, published in 1988 by Game Designers' Workshop. It is set in an alternate Victorian Era where the major nations of Earth are extending their colonial interests on Mars and Venus. The discovery of Liftwood, a Martian plant endowed with anti-gravity powers, allows the deployment of aerial fleets in the skies of the Red Planet.

<i>Fire in the East</i> Board game

Fire in the East is a monster board wargame published in 1984 by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) that simulates Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

<i>Drang Nach Osten!</i> Board game

Drang Nach Osten! is a monster board wargame published in 1973 by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) that simulates Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The game was the first of what was envisioned as a series of games with identical wargame rules and map scale that would simulate the entire Second World War in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Miller (game designer)</span> American game designer (born 1947)

Marc William Miller is a wargame and role-playing game designer and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loren Wiseman</span> American role-playing game designer

Loren Keith Wiseman was an American wargame and role-playing game designer, game developer and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Striker (miniatures game)</span> Science fiction miniatures wargame

Striker is a science fiction miniatures wargame, designed by Frank Chadwick, and illustrated by William H. Keith. It was published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1981 as a boxed expansion to the Traveller role-playing game. Although Striker is a 15mm miniatures ruleset, GDW consider it their eighth Traveller boardgame. It was republished in 2004 as part of Far Future Enterprises Traveller: The Classic Games, Games 1-6+.

<i>Azhanti High Lightning</i> Board wargame published in 1980

Azhanti High Lightning is a science-fiction wargame, designed by Frank Chadwick and Marc W. Miller, illustrated by Paul R. Banner, Charmaine Geist, Richard Hentz, and Richard Flory, and published by Game Designers Workshop (GDW) in 1980. The title is the name of the large military starship that provides the setting for close-action combat between individuals on board. Azhanti High Lightning is the fourth Traveller boardgame published by GDW. It was republished in 2004 as part of Far Future Enterprises's (FFE) Traveller: The Classic Games, Games 1-6+. Originally Supplement 5: Lightning Class Cruisers was only available as part of this game, it was republished in 2000 as part of FFE's Traveller Supplements volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rich Banner</span>

Paul Richard "Rich" Banner is an American game designer and graphic artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Novak</span> American wargame designer

Greg Novak was a wargame designer, author of dozens of games, rules supplements and scenario books, his most notable contributions including the Volley & Bayonet series and several works about the American War of Independence.

Lester W. Smith is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

John Harshman is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

<i>Traveller Supplement 11: Library Data</i> (N-Z) Science-fiction role-playing game supplement

Traveller Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z) is a tabletop role-playing game supplement, published by Game Designers' Workshop.

<i>The Traveller Adventure</i> Tabletop role-playing game

The Traveller Adventure is a campaign of linked adventures published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1983 for the science fiction tabletop role-playing game Traveller, and a companion volume for The Traveller Book.

<i>Traveller Supplement 8: Library Data</i> (A-M) Science-fiction role-playing game supplement

Traveller Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M) is a 1981 tabletop role-playing game supplement written by Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, Marc W. Miller, and Loren K. Wiseman for Traveller published by Game Designers' Workshop. Thirteen Traveller supplements were published. A single collected volume was published by Far Future Enterprises in 2000.

<i>Team Yankee</i> (board game) 1987 Board game

Team Yankee, subtitled "A Game of World War III", is a board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1987 that is based on the book of the same name by Harold Coyle.

References

  1. 1 2 "Players' Guide to TWILIGHT: 20000 (version 2.2)" (PDF). Far Future Enterprises. 10 October 2006. p. 17. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 Sweich, Paul (January 13, 1996). "Game over: Role-playing game design firm closes" . The Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. p. C1 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. ↑ Varney, Allen. "A Perpetual Traveller: Marc Miller". Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  5. ↑ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. New York: Prometheus Books. p. 266 and 422. ISBN   978-0-87975-653-6.
  6. ↑ "Space: 1889 "Red Devils"". Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Heliograph's Space 1889 Resource Site" . Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Sweich, Paul. (Jan 24, 1991). "Fact Book Author gets spot on TV". Pantagraph. p. A2.
  9. ↑ "Great History – The Best Blogging in History". Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  10. ↑ "Historicon.org". Archived from the original on 2012-08-01.
  11. ↑ "35th Annual Origins Awards Winners!" . Retrieved 6 October 2014.
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